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Network Mystery and Canon puzzle

I'm aware this isn't strictly a mac security issue, but it's still annoying the hell out of me! I'm a recent convert to mac and have a brand new imac. But whilst the rest of my network can see and access the mac, it can't see any PC on the ethernet network, all it picks up is the wireless connection to my laptop.

I'm at a loss to think why this could be and would welcome any suggestions.

Secondly I upgraded my Canon Printer and now for some strange reason, it refuses to share with the other PCs on the network. The older 4200 had no such issues, but the Canon IP4500 just will not work over the network, even though I ticked "share this printer". The colour laser printer which is set up as a print server is freely accessed so I can print from each PC, but it annoys me that I can only use the Canon if I'm working on the mac.

I don't have too much experience with Macs... but do you have the workgroup set? I could definitely be mistaken, but I think you have to set the workgroup name for the Mac to be the same as the Windows workgroup you want to join. This should be under system prefs, then network, and then click the advanced button for your connection. I think you can change the workgroup under WINS. I could be way off, or you may have already done this, but I figure it is worth a shot.

Good luck, and merry Christmas!

\"Those of us that had been up all night were in no mood for coffee and donuts, we wanted strong drink.\"

westin, yes all the PCs are on the same network, called MSHOME. Remember too that the network works in one direction. ie I can access the mac and all the files, folders etc from both the lapatop and the PC running Vista Ultimate, it can only see the laptop on the wireless connection and not this PC on the ethernet connection.

I can ping, but only the IP address of the PC and laptop, whereas from the PC, I can ping the mac either by name or IP address. In fact the situation seems to be getting worse not better. When I try to add the printer to the laptop or here, everything goes fine until I try to print a test page. Then I'm told I don't have "permission" to access the Canon Printer. And now I can't even get the mac to see the laptop - at least it used to do that before I fiddled around with network properties and WINS etc.

dinowuff, thanks for that suggeston, but I think it's meant more for mac users who are trying to connect to windows print servers. My mac has no problem. It happily accesses the colour laser which is a network printer, and uses the canon printer which is attahed to it. I have come across reports of people who have had issues with this printer actually - apparently there's a patch you can apply, and written somewhere in the instructions is a warning that it won't connect to a windows machine. However, someone else tried this patch (whatever it is) and had no luck.

Slartarama, I have masses of shares set up on each PC. I have the same workgroup name but I can't find any Windows File Sharing and Personal File Sharing - there are frustratingly few options to play around with.

The only firewall on the PCs is the built in Vista firewall. But printer and file sharing is turned on etc, I actually consider myself quite good with networks lol, or did before this! Now I feel a complete n00b. I'm sure when I first got the mac, me and a friend got everything networked properly and of course I had the Canon IP4200 printer which was no problem at all. Then my Dad was giving his away, so I upgraded to the Canon IP4500 and things don't work any more. I suppose it doesn't matter, in that every computer has access to a printer, and if I print photos it's generally from the mac as their IPhoto software is good, free and generally makes a better job of my photos.

I was about to say that Bluetooth actually works, but the last time I connected from my phone, I got to the image folder and it couldn't seem to "see" the photos inside.